Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in as Russia’s new President this week. Anxieties that a resurgent Russia could cut supplies of gas to Europe have provoked talk of another Cold War. But Andreas Goldthau, of the RAND Corporation, believes energy is useless to Moscow as a foreign policy instrument. (SPRING 2008)

“At the end of the day, the crucial issue in Europe’s energy supply picture is not Russian power politics but dry economics. There is a perceptible investment gap in the Russian gas sector that is likely to cause a supply gap for European households. The policy recommendation for Europe is therefore simple and straight forward: put a stop to all the philosophical debates about Russia’s gas weapon and instead initiate serious talks with Moscow on measures to stabilise production and prevent further irritations among the transit routes.”

Comments

Andreas Goldthau’s point of view is rather original. However, I keep thinking that gas – and any energetic resource – is more than ever a major geopolitical weapon. It’s quite naive to say the contrary.

Its the Kremlin’s failure to tackle corruption, modernise its economy, encourage investment and reform its bureaucracy is raising serious concerns, by industry experts, that the Russian energy sector will not be able to meet Europe’s energy needs by 2020 tha should be the EU’s main concern.